i'm feeling all alone here now. i used to be more productive at night - as i had the luxury of not having to get up early. i was convinced that i was wired up in such a way that i could never 'happily' get up early and do anything.

since last december i've been getting up about 6am and now feel that the few hours that follow to be the most productive. i'm hoping i can get into the habit of waking at about 5am and get into some kind of exercise routine. too much information i know for what was asked - i just wanted it to be known that if you are a 'night owl' and would like to become an 'early bird' then it's not difficult. (i believe starting the day early does instill a more positive attitude to the day ahead - maybe i'm just deluding myself because it is the summer at the moment.)

Nudone, I'm not so sure about that. It may not have been difficult for you, but I've definitely done both - night owl and early riser - and night owl is *way* easier for me. Right now I get up around 8:30AM for work every morning and it's *always* a struggle. Yet if I get the same ~8 hours of sleep and go to bed around 4AM, wake up around noon, it's totally natural and totally comfortable. There are actually even evolutionary arguments for "night people"... http://www.systemsth...mind/nightowls.shtml

12 months ago, i would have agreed with you wholeheartedly, javajones.

but these recent past few months have shown me that a change can be done. the 'magic trick' is perhaps to find the right time of the morning to get up. to me, 6am represents a 'positive' time to jump out of bed even though i don't have to leave the house until 8am or 9am to go to work - i don't lie in on the weekend either.

7am feels like an utterly wretched time to get up - even 8am. these times of the day are associated with things i hate - bad memories of going to school or jobs i'd rather forget. whereas the 6am time has no such associations.

i'd say it's also important what you do to start the day. don't watch tv. do something that means you won't have to do it later on in the day - it's all part of setting off on the right foot.

i can still be working on things until midnight and any moments of fatigue during the day are usually just indications that i need to move onto a more stimulating task - which i do and 'magically' i feel fully awake again.

i'm had years of getting up 'late' and going to bed 'late' and i've aggravated my sleep patterns by clock watching throughout the night. i've also found that 'longer' hours in bed are not a good thing. for me 6 to 7 hours appears to be working fine at the moment. contrast this with times i would have 8 or more hours in bed where i would feel lethargic throughout the day - never really 'waking up' it would seem.

i only have one caffeine drink a day - first thing when i get up - so my head isn't still buzzing when go to bed.

if i'm still doing all this come December time then i'll personally be convinced that this is the right way to do things. if i'm in the habit of making the 5am wake-up by then i'll be absolutely overjoyed.

the moral of my post is: if you have to get up early and it feels bad - try getting up even earlier and do something with the time - it makes a dramatic (positive) difference to the rest of the day.

1: Try waking up even earlier, even if it's earlier than you "need" to. Yes, I thought of this after reading your initial post when I was writing my own. I haven't *really* tried this. But there are some potentially fundamental issues with it which I'll go into in a moment.

2: Do "something" when you wake up. This is interesting and I think it's good advice, that I haven't really stuck to before.

So I think I can say it's possible you are right, since I haven't really given either of those methods a good try. Here are my issues and thoughts however (most are solvable, but not necessarily easily/cheaply/efficiently):

A: I find it phsyically very difficult and a very long process to wake up at almost any time of day. There are rare moments when I simply wake up almost instantly and it just somehow works, and I wish I could channel that at other times, but I can never do it at will. The brain state that controls me at wake time is a different one than one who might resolve something the night before, so even though I may have intention to just spring right out of bed and "do my thing", my morning brain puts a quick stop to that. I don't know quite how to circumvent that.

B: I have done the early morning thing for many years before now, so it's not a matter of time spent doing it. I do have some associations with early mornings - school and work of course. I'm not sure whether these are involved.

C: I also find that 8 or less hours of sleep is best. More than that almost always makes me more tired. 6-7 seems fine most of the time. Less can be an issue, but even then it's not usually major.

D: I do not drink coffee on a regular basis. I'd say about once a month. So lack of stimulants could be a big issue, even though you "only" drink once a day.

E: I don't watch TV, don't have a TV (watch movies, etc. on my computer though). When I wake up in the morning my time is purely functionally oriented. I take about 20 minutes to get ready for work so I wake up about 20 minutes before I have to go. That's it, no leisure time, no "getting other things done" time. I think of extra time awake before I *have* to be awake as wasted and unpleasant. This may tie into my poor time management. There are few tasks I can think of that would be genuinely productive for me to do in the morning that would be short enough to fit into a reasonable morning timeslot. I suppose all my forum checks could go there, that wouldn't be bad. A general morning 'net check. Exercise would be a good thing too...

F: The biggie: cold. It's almost always way colder than I like it to be any time before 10AM. The cold is a big part of what keeps me in bed where it is invariably warmer. I could get a space heater or something, but it would have to be on a timer. That too is feasible. It's not something I've ever tried. But my assumption is that if the outside temperature were pleasant or even warm, I'd be more inclined to get up. I simply detest the "shock" method of waking up - getting out of warm bed into cold air, splashing water on the face, taking a morning shower, etc. I don't do any of that because I don't like it.

So perhaps a lot of it comes down to attitude or ingrained habits. I don't really know. I do still feel that there are people just more naturally inclined toward day or night schedules, or somewhere in-between, and it is very hard for me to argue how well my natural sleep cycle tendency works in terms of time spent sleeping, awake time, ease of waking up, etc. 4AM to Noon seems to be my sweet spot...

I will consider your experiences and advice though. Somehow I doubt I will change anything fundamentally, but it could be interesting to essentially have my work day in the middle of my day - wake at 5, go to work at 9, return at 5, sleep at 10 or 11...

At first I was against it, but when I finally gave in and agreed to allow my daughter to totally change her sleeping habits to something that was very abnormal for a someone her age, I was pleasantly surprised to find out it worked very well for her.

Instead of sleeping at night like normal people do, she would sleep after coming home from school, wake up at about 12m-1am and get all her homework done, write poetry, clean her room, etc. Then start getting ready for school.

Gone were the days of not doing her homework, the quality of her work increased, and morning chaos was gone, with her making it to school on time almost every day and fewer days absent. And my home was much more peaceful.

Before she made the change, she was notorious for not doing her work and showing up late....the typical slacker. The change turned her into a powerhouse of productivity. And the clean bedroom was a nice bonus!

I do believe that some people are just naturally nocturnal.

I have always felt like I was doing something unnatural when trying to be a day person. It just never seems to work for me. I enjoy the peace & solitude of the night. Working during the day just makes me more prone to frustration and more likely to end up in a bad mood. I think better at night.

It is unfortunate that most people don't have the luxury of being able to live by the hours that they are best suited for. This is still a world for day people and I don't see that changing any time soon.

If you are a night person and have a career that allows you to keep the hours you are best suited for, you are a lucky person.

i hear what you are saying, javajones, and i have to agree about the room temperature.

the crucial thing is that if you have to get up early and you find it an ordeal (and i most certainly did) it is better to get up with the attitude that you are doing it for yourself, i.e. to do things for yourself, rather than being forced to get up because you have to rush to work within the next 30 minutes.

i hate my job (i'm going to resign later today) but i still find getting up early a good experience because of the time i'm using for myself.

sitting in front of the pc, getting through your emails and daily browsing addictions is something i'd recommend doing first thing in the morning.

yes, handing my letter in but will have to work for them for another 4 weeks. my boss is like a paranoid, slightly psychotic version of David Brent, so i'm really looking forward to his reaction (he is a big factor in why i'm choosing to leave).

The problem i had was that for a couple of years i was working in enviroments with no windows (like mole people) and have phycologicaly associated sunlight with down time. If i can see sunlight i just get to distracted (a bit like a caveman i suppose, ug lookum biggum ball of fire in sky).

Yes, I like the idea of "getting up early for me". Now I just need to figure out what would be worth it to *me* to get out of bed that early, consistently. Interestingly if there is ever anything I really *am* looking forward to early in the morning then it's a whole lot easier to get up. I actually rather like my job, but it's not like I eagerly look forward to it every day, hehe. But let's say I was getting up to meet my girlfriend and go for a hike or something - that'd definitely be more motivating than just getting up daily for work. So it's all about finding good reasons to get up, reasons to be excited in the morning. Maybe if I go to bed every night with at least one thing left undone, and save it for the morning, I'll be eager to get up the next day. lol

perhaps you shouldn't look too hard - just find something that is enjoyable rather than being worth the extra effort.

i.e. it could be something that you'll do later or throughout the day anyway - but it's something you enjoy so you'll be associating getting up with doing the 'enjoyable' activity. or, if you'd rather, you find a task that would be good to get out of the way so that it frees up the rest of the day.

sometimes doing things for other people helps - trivial tasks can then seem more important or of value.

i guess this is becoming too much of a 'motivational blog' and i'm sure there are better places to get the advice from.

just a final point. all of this getting up early is a bit of a game - i still do it at the weekend even though i could stay in bed all day if i wished. but associating lying in bed as a 'luxury' or 'reward' are just ways of making the rest of the early rise week days seem like a punishment. it is far better to think of the early starts as a benefit and not a hindrance - start even earlier at the weekend for example.

all this has been a bit of a paradigm shift for me - hence my eagerness to preach it.